Forgiveness and Stuff
by piper maru duchovny
Summary: A long overdue conversation between Dan and Lily. - post season 9 AU.


**I never liked that we didn't get to see Lily learning the truth about how Keith died (and just more Lily in general) and the fact that they killed Dan off without a scene between the two of them. So this is a little AU set about the time of the finale but ignoring Dan's death in 9x11 "Danny Boy". Also the title is stolen from a Gilmore Girl's episode. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing and seek to gain no profit.**

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The sixteen year old sat in the car outside the greasy spoon in the middle of nowhere North Carolina; she watched the man inside taking orders at the counter, serving the few customers in the establishment. She glanced down at the photo in her hand – it was a worn, tattered photo of her father that had once sat in a frame beside her bed but now took up residence in the pocket of her leather jacket wherever she went. With a shaky sigh, she pushed her long dark tresses behind her shoulder and climbed out of the car.

When the bell over the door jangled, the man glanced up at her and stopped dead in his tracks. "Lily," he breathed her name. "You're Lily."

"Hello Uncle Dan," she greeted him as she took a seat at the counter.

"Everyone out," he ordered. "It's all on the house but you have to get out now."

Lily watched as the patrons grabbed what food they could and filed out the front door of the diner. "You didn't have to do that."

"I didn't want you to have witnesses when you murdered me," he explained.

"I'm not here to murder you," Lily promised – though she would be lying if she said the thought hadn't crossed her mind at least once in the past few years. Instead, she launched into a shaky speech. "I always knew that Andy wasn't my biological father even though he has been there for as long as I can remember – mom never hid the fact that my dad had died before I was born. There was a picture of Keith Scott on my nightstand pretty much from birth and I used to have these dreams about him where he would take me on adventures and give me messages for mom and Luke so they wouldn't be so sad."

"Lily-"

"Mom didn't tell me how he died until I was thirteen and I found a copy of _An Unkindness of Ravens_ on her bookshelf – luckily she got to me before I got to the chapter with the shooting. I didn't really know who you were when mom told me – you were this sort of amorphous image in my head from the few times Luke mentioned you and the stories that Jamie and Lydia shared about their grandpa. When I heard that you killed my father, that you tried to blame it on Jimmy Edwards – the boy my dad tried so desperately to save… I hated you. I never really missed him until that moment – I always had Andy and that was always enough until I found out it was an accident that took my dad away but a very intentional act by my uncle instead. All my life I'd heard stories about the great Keith Scott, about what a good man he was – how much he loved my mom and Lucas, but I never got to know him because of you."

"I'm so sorry."

"I think you really are," Lily admitted. "I think you didn't kill my dad because you thought he tried to kill you. I think you were jealous of him because he was getting everything you ever wanted; he was going to marry my mom, he was going to adopt Lucas, and you were watching your brother walk away with the life you'd given up. It's Cain and Abel all over again. Why else would have been so glued to my mom's side afterward? Especially when she found out she was pregnant with me?"

"You're right," Dan confessed – in hindsight, it had been his jealousy that had drove him to murder. It was something he was sure he'd never forgive himself for, his most unforgiveable sin – he had killed his big brother, the one person who had always been there for him no matter how far he had fallen.

"I forgive you," Lily whispered. "It's what my dad would have wanted and I have spent the last three years since I found out hating your guts only to realize that hating you is never going to bring him back. I forgive you, Dan."

"Thank you," he breathed while blinking back tears.

"That's all I wanted to say," she explained as she slid off the stool and made for the door.

"Lily," he called after her. "You look just like him – Keith… You look just like him; there's a lot of your mother but you have his eyes… and his smile."

"Mom tells me that every day."

"You have her grace and strength," he added. "You have Keith's heart and capacity for forgiveness."

She gives him the slightest of nods as she opens the door. "Thank you, Uncle Dan."


End file.
